2010 Retrospective

I thought this year’s retrospective was going to be very small and not much eventful (what with the end of Tsubasa and stuff), but I was completely wrong! I had as much trouble collecting all the important facts from this year as any other previous years.

I rounded up the most important facts of this year in the CLAMP universe and at the end of the list is what we can expect for the future =)

• January:

– Release of Kobato. TV Anime DVD #1. The limited first edition came with a Box drawn by CLAMP.
– CLAMP’s winter illustration of “Happy Ko” is featured in NHK’s kids show, Tensai TV-kun MAX.

• February:

– CLAMP presents Japanese female athlete Sakai Yui with an illustration as an act of supporting her participation in the Winter Olympic games. The athlete commented about it in her official blog.
– Kobato. CHARACTERS COLLECTION, the Kobato. TV anime official guide book is released by Kadokawa Shoten.
– An article and CLAMP interview is published in the “Me & My Blythe2” book.
– CLAMP’s spring illustration of “Happy Ko” is featured in NHK’s kids show, Tensai TV-kun MAX.
– A talk between CLAMP member Nanase Ohkawa and the director of the Kobato. TV anime, Mitsuyuki Masuhara, is published in the January issue of Newtype magazine.

• March:

– Episode 20 of the Kobato. TV Anime airs in Japanese TV. The episode script was written by CLAMP member Nanase Ohkawa and features the characters of Tsubasa.
– The premiere of the XXXHOLiC Rou OAD takes place in Shibuya, Tokyo. CLAMP members made a secret guest appearance. Other guests included director Tsutomu Mizushima, Sayaka Ohara (Yuuko’s seiyuu), Jun Fukuyama (Watanuki’s seiyuu) and Kazuya Nakai (Doumeki’s seiyuu).
– A talk between CLAMP and the mangaka of Godhand Teru, Kazuki Yamamoto, is published in Godhand Teru Complete Dictionary Valhöll.
– CLAMP collaborates with an illustration for Newtype magazine’s 25th Anniversary commemorative pamphlet.
– The collaboration between Youko Tsukumo and CLAMP led to another volume of The Witch’s Mansion series. CLAMP drew the cover and inside illustrations for The Witch’s Mansion and the Mysterious Scientist, the 5th volume of the series.
– The broadcast of the Kobato. TV Anime ends on NHK BS2. The series had a total of 24 episodes, two of which were written by CLAMP’s scriptwriter Nanase Ohkawa.

• April:

– A talk between CLAMP and singer Maaya Sakamoto is published in the 0331 pamphlet, released for Maaya Sakamoto’s 15th Anniversary concert at the Budokan. CLAMP also drew an illustration of Maaya.
– Release of XXXHOLiC #17 along with the XXXHOLiC Rou OAD. The regular edition stayed in the Top 4 positions in most rankings in its release week.
– CLAMP travels to Kyoto and start collecting data for their next work, GATE7.
– A new Code Geass production is announced, entitled Code Geass GAIDEN: Boukoku no Akito. CLAMP is once again in charge of drawing the original character designs.

• May:

– Release of Kobato. TV Anime Official Guide Book Happy Memories. The book contained summaries of all 24 episodes, interview with staff and cast plus a talk with the anime director and Nanase Ohkawa.
– A campaign to promote the moving of XXXHOLiC to Bessatsu Shonen Magazine is held in 3 Kodansha magazines. A XXXHOLiC Rou one-shot was published in Weekly Shonen Magazine and a Holitsuba one-shot in Magazine SPECIAL, the 3rd magazine was Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, featuring the first chapter of XXXHOLiC’s new serialization. A QUO card was given to those who purchased each magazine and a short OAD for those who purchased all three magazines.

• June:

– XXXHOLiC’s serialization moves to Kodansha’s monthly magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. In its first appearance in the magazine, XXXHOLiC featured the front cover.
– XXXHOLiC #16 and #17 appeared in Oricon’s 50 top-selling mangas in Japan from November 2009 to May 2010. They ranked 31 and 37, respectively. XXXHOLiC was Kodansha’s 6th best-selling title.
– CLAMP designs a Kinomoto Sakura and a Kimihiro Watanuki Blythe dolls for the Manga Girls Inspiration Charity Exhibition. The exhibition was held to celebrate Blythe‘s 9th Anniversary in Japan.

• July:

– CLAMP draws an illustration for the Summer Wars Official Comic Anthology.
– The members of CLAMP attend the opening ceremony of the Blythe exhibition and charity event at Omotesando Hills, Tokyo, Japan.
– CLAMP’s original art and drafts for The Witch’s Mansion and the Mysterious Scientist is exhibited at the Aoi Tori Bunko Festival exhibition in Kodansha’s K-Square.
– CLAMP moves to a new studio in Tokyo. They stayed in the former studio for 6 years.
– Release of Kobato. TV Anime DVD #7. The limited first edition came with a Box drawn by CLAMP.

• August:

– The members of CLAMP make a live guest appearance in Mihara Ichirou’s twitcast, during the time he visited their new studio.
– Release of XXXHOLiC Box Part 1, containing episodes 1 to 12 of the first season of the XXXHOLiC TV Anime.
– The XXXHOLiC Rou Short OAD is delivered to those who participated in the 3 magazines campaign. The 2 minute video was revealed to be the opening sequence of a new XXXHOLiC Rou OAD, set for a 2011 release.
– CLAMP collaborates with writer Tsukumo Youko in the short story “The Princess’ Disappearing Goblet – ‘The Witch’s Mansion’ Extra Story – The Night Before the Shiny Magic -“ for the Aoi Tori Bunko‘s 30th Anniversary commemorative book I want to read an interesting story! Magical Compilation!.

– Release of the XXXHOLiC 2011 Desktop Calendar, featuring black and white illustrations by CLAMP previously used as title pages for XXXHOLiC chapters.
– Release of XXXHOLiC #18. It stayed in the Top 2 positions in most rankings in its release week.
– A mail-in service to win a XXXHOLiC Fukusei Genga was hosted by Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. The Fukusei Genga is printed in a quality in order to look like a replica of the original art.
– Release of XXXHOLiC Box Part 2, containing episodes 13 to 24 of the first season of the XXXHOLiC TV Anime.

• November:

– CLAMP joins Amazon.co.jp’s “Hall of Fame” in the comic artists category. A formal ceremony was held to announce the artists and celebrate Amazon.co.jp’s 10th Anniversary.
– GATE7 one-shot is published in JUMP SQ. In the same issue it was announced that the one-shot will become a regular series in JUMP SQ in February, 2011.
– CLAMP draws the cover and inside illustrations for the pocket edition re-release of classic children’s book Peter Pan and Wendy (by author J. M. Barrie).
– CLAMP@MOBiLE launches its official twitter account: @CLAMP_news.
– The Kobato. manga gets a page increase in Newtype magazine. Until then the chapters were only up to 14 pages each, from now on each chapter can have up to 24 pages.

Yeah, some Gouhou Drug would be nice… With the new Bill approved by Tokyo’s government, I fear the worse for X 😦 but one can always hope! Right now I think Gouhou Drug is most likely to return, XXXHOLiC is the only think keeping Nekoi’s hands busy enough.

Hmm, I see. Though in this case, shouldn’t more recent series like “Kuroshitsuji” be in even more trouble? 😐 Besides, we have similar laws in Germany and while sometimes those who decide what is decent and what isn’t have very weird standards, they generally do a good job. If those who will handle it in Japan know what they’re doing, I don’t see much changing except less shota/loli/guro stuff being published. And maybe a few additional censor bars. Then again, it’s Japan and I don’t know all that much about their standards. Though as far as I can tell from the manga I read, they don’t seem to be nearly as picky as the German government. I wonder if it’s really going to change that drastically in the future.
To be honest, as a publisher I’d be more worried about not enough people remembering/still being interested and therefore potentially losing money by releasing the rest of X. Money is worse than any law.

Thanks for the link anyway! When I google “Tokyo” and “bill”, all the results are Tokio Hotel’s Bill Kaulitz. *facepalm*

And it’s not really just a matter of this bill; it would be hard to find a magazine which would be willing to serialise X, it being an unreliable publication considering how many times it was hiatused because of concerns over it’s violence, the earthquake thing ect. I guess any publisher would be worried about any further controversy being caused by the series and the not entirely small possiblilty of it being cancelled again if it’s content was anything like it was before.

I do hope Legal drug will resume though. Kobato must soon be approaching it’s conclusion, so let’s hope that once that’s over, CLAMP pick up Legal Drug again.

Wow this year Clamp have done a lot good works! I just can’t wait for the next year, especially Gate 7, so exciting!
And last, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY & HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thank you a lot for all your information in last year

Your retrospective of 2010 is really amazing, you must have spend a lot of time on it, thanks for the hard work! Seeing it all listed here really gives a neater and clearer idea of what Clamp has been up to in 2010 😀

It’s been a while since i’ve been commenting here. X) haha.
… I think I missed out a lot. xD wowww. i didn’t even see the Maaya Sakmoto drawing before… o.o and i agree, i felt like not much had happened this year because Tsubasa ended but heck, CLAMP had a pretty busy year! 🙂

Hey! I don’t comment all the time, but i love this LJ, I read it it everyday!!! Thank you for your brilliant work, Chibi Yuuto, you’re my n#1 source for CLAMP news(and OADs XD)! “Bonne année et bonne santé” (happy new year and good health) from France!

For me, 2011 will be the year Clamp made it to the last of the three big publishers. They have worked with Kondansha for over 15 years, they made it to Shogakukan on 2004 and now they have a first series published at Shueisha. Talking of Shueisha, Tamayo beat her friends by 13 years as she published Shade there between 97 and 99, but since she never made it to Shogakukan or Kondansha…

For 2012, I’m crossing my finger we will get an annoncement for another serialisation or the resume of an old serialisation. With xxxHolic now a monthly manga, they have room for a fourth series, like they did in 1998 (X, Wish, Card Captor Sakura and Clover) 1999 (X, Card Captor Sakura, Suki Dakara Suki and Angelic Layer) or 2001 (X, Suki Dakara Suki, Chobits and Gouhou Drug). They might even be able to manage 5 at a time now, it’s been 8 years since they took two weekly manga, and before that, they had three monthly and a weekly series.

I’m hoping against hope we will get some news for Clover and X this year. Do we fans start making pressure for the puplisher in 2011?